She Will Be Loved
by ChipmunkStories
Summary: Simon and Jeanette were high school students simply in love, no more and no less. However, the two were separated from a reason unknown to everybody. Now, back from United States where he resided for seven years, doctor Simon Seville had come to visit Denver for the first time since that fateful day. Will he be ready to face the truth behind the white lies? Read and find out
1. Perceived Happiness

"You know, we should get married."

He said quietly, as he looked up to search for her response. It was four in the afternoon and the sunniest day everyone could remember in Denver, Colorado. Afternoon classes had just ended and the only ones left in West Eastman High school were the ones involved in club activities or sport practices. The chipmunk who had just spoken walked forward to embrace the chipette who seemed to be in her own world, painting an entire mural for the school's Arts night.

"Hmm..." She looked up, as she felt the tenderness of the strong hands holding her from behind. "Did you say something?"

She smiled, as she stared at the chipmunk's breathtaking pair of blue eyes. It was genetics; God- given. Everyone in his family had a pair of eyes just like his, but the way it sparkled when he looked at her made it even more beautiful. He chuckled at her answer. Using his index finger he gently wiped the paint that resided in her face and then he clasped his hands firm to get her undivided attention. Her confused face made the boy chuckle once more.

"I said... Let's get married." He watched in amusement as her big brown eyes widened, processing the information given to her just second ago.

"Simon Seville!" Her whimsical voice was higher than usual. She was surprised, astonished at his proposal. She looked at him, and their eyes intertwined. He produced a small smile that revealed his intention - that he was serious. "We've been together since sophomore year. We're senior students now, graduating next month. I thought it's about time I popped the question." He calmly responded, his hands clasping tightly to hers. She listened to him - then she squeezed his hands. "We are still too young, Simon."

"I know, Jeanette... but..."

"What did you say you wanted to be when you grow up?"

"Your husband."

He laughed.

She pinched him. "I know you've always wanted to be a doctor, Simon. You've even gotten yourself a sweet scholarship from Cambridge - that's all the way in UK!" She looked up through the window. "Marriage isn't something we should talk about..."

"Yet."

She stared at his sudden interruption. "You're right. Marriage is something we shouldn't talk about yet."

Jeanette giggled at him. "I love you, Simon. But marriage isn't something we should talk about at the moment. You have a great future ahead of you, and I don't want anything to ruin your future. Especially not me."

Upon hearing her last word, he suddenly pulled Jeanette in his arms so fast that she never saw it coming.

She noticed the strong pair of hands that she came to know all these years were wrapped around her at this moment, trembling. "Sim-"

He planted a kiss on her lips. Then he looked at her.

The chipette he first fell in love with at seventh-grade had become even more beautiful over the years that they had been together. To be honest, she was never his type to begin with. He preferred easy, dumb girls that could offer him something more physical. Simon Seville was known to be the only heir of Thomas Hotels and Industries. As the only heir he was expected to follow through with his parents' footsteps. It was after a brief meeting between seventh-grader Simon Seville and seventh-grader Jeanette Miller that helped Simon decide what he wanted to do in the future - and he demands this girl to be in it.

"Jeanette Miller, you will never ruin my future because you helped me create it. Now I want you in it. Be my strength, Jeanette."

Softly, she touched his face. "I will, as soon as you give me your PhD."

"It's a deal."

"I can't believe we are out of this school!"

Theodore screamed out, tossing his cap up and down. The graduation ceremony had just ended and everyone was waiting for the banquet hall to finish its preparation. West Eastman High was just like every other high school - except they were known to throw majestic graduation celebrations fit for a king.

"Calm down, cowboy. We got the point."

Simon yelled back, with Jeanette in his arms. The three had been close since high school started, and now the relief of school being finished had everyone fired up. "Dave wants us to take a picture together, come here Therodore!" Jeanette took Theodore's hand and dragged him back to where Simon and Dave were standing. For a second Theodore's hand stiffened, but he finally gave up. He could never win against her. Against Jeanette - against Simon's girlfriend. After several hours of picture taking and celebrations, the day had ended. They were officially finished high school.

"Man, I still can't believe it." Theodore sighed, relief plastered on his face. He was relaxing on one of Simon's beach chairs, out looking the big body of water where others have decided to take a swim. The graduating class decided to go straight to the beach after the formal banquet, where they could spend one last time as a class. Since the nearest villa was owned by Simon's family, they decided to hold it there.

"I know. Everything just feels surreal." Simon replied, handing Theodore a cold soda then plopped himself down on the chair next to Theodore. After a comfortable silence, Theodore spoke up.

"So what's the plan now?" He asked, as he looked out on shore. "I know your family's hard-headed when it comes to your future and you being the only heir they have. Heck, we shouldn't even be talking about things like this as if we're already kids so-"

"I'm going to Cambridge to become a doctor." Simon replied, with no quiver in his voice. He tried to remember the countless arguments he had with his father, and a grin plastered on his face when he remembered when his father finally approved of his decision.

"He agreed to my plan on becoming a doctor as long as I don't forget to act like an heir once in a while." Theodore slapped Simon on the shoulder. "Good Job, man. I didn't think I had it in you to fight your old man." Simon laughed as he waved at his favorite redhead from the beach. He turned to Theodore. "I didn't. But Jeanette... She believed in me." Simon laughed, then patted Theodore goodbye as he went to approach his girlfriend who was walking up to them.

Theodore was never the type to stay with one chipette. He never cared about their feelings either. There was only one chipette he cared about. But she was already happy with another guy, and he was happy for them as well. With a smirk, he slapped himself in the face and went up to advance on a blonde with a skimpy outfit on.

"To celebrate my graduation," he thought.

The next few days were spent by going to the movies, picnics, and swimming in the beach. Jeanette couldn't be any happier than to spend the days with Simon. He was everything to her, and she was everything with him.

"You're leaving in six days, right?" She asked him, their hands interlaced with each other as they walked through the newly-built Jericho Mall.

"Seven days," he corrected. Then they were silent. Jeanette can feel Simon tighten his grip on her fingers so she gave him a quick squeeze. It snapped Simon in his trance of thought. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

"Are you scared?" She asked. They were now sitting in front of a man-made waterfall created as the main attraction of the mall. Jeanette was glad that nobody else was there so they could get some privacy.

"I am." He admitted. Usually looking at her alluring purple eyes helped him calm down, but his worry right now was too big. "My grandfather is coming tonight because he heard about my decision from my father. He is not too happy about it. And he's one heck of a stubborn man - much stubborn than my father. He wanted me to focus on the family business and nothing else. "

Jeanette giggled. Slowly she planted a kiss on his forehead. "I can't believe for a big guy, you sure act like a girl." She looked at him. Only a few words can describe how handsome he is. Simon Seville had such a fair-fur, without a few scratches he received from Basketball matches a few weeks ago. His short hair was as dark as midnight, and it slightly covered his pair of blue eyes. He works out a lot; she can definitely feel his toned upper body when she hugs him. She secretly likes the feeling.

"You know, I can come with you to dinner today, if you want. If things go wrong then I can say something to help our case," she smiled.

"You've met my grandfather. He tried to eat you alive before. He'll probably finish what's left of you." He sighed.

"I know your grandfather seems to have an edge, and he may be kinda mysterious seeing that you only see each other once every two years... but I'm sure he's a good man on the inside."

He looked at her as if a rabbit had just seen his long lost carrot. For him, he found hope. This chipette, who he had always relied on for years, had lent her shoulder once more.

"I love you, Jeanette."

"I love you too, Simon." 


	2. It Began Again

Ten. Nine. Eight.

Tick. Tock.

"Pl-Please spare my life!"

The chipmunk pleading for his life hastily reached out for his pockets, taking as much of the stolen money out as he possibly could, on the freezing ground of New York, his trembling hands cooperating. He was running for his life; running through the hazy pitch black night, sweat trickling his face as he could hear the faint sounds of stilettos coming to his direction.

Slowly.

Seven. Six.

A soft feminine chuckle filled the air.

The feared drug lord known as Alvin ruled the red light district for the whole of seven years. He was feared and begrudgingly respected by his gang. In the end however, this Alvin will become the district s laughing stock as they will read tomorrow s newspaper headline stating that...

"Alvin the drug lord dies of heart attack." What it will not say was that he jacked off a hot-headed politician who decided to hire someone to put Alvin to rest; eternal, everlasting rest.

Tick. Tock.

His three hundred pound body was slowing down, he felt cornered as his back pressed itself through the cold marble wall - an endpoint.

"I ll give you everything! Everything! Money! You want money, right?" His body was wavering yet he was able to push through a request, and a selfish request at that. Everyone had their turn in trying to kill the infamous drug lord, but because his people were all over the place gathering information, he was able to escape each and every assassination headed his way.

This night however, was different. No one was supposed to know that he was on his way for another dirty deal. Alone.

No one.

But when he found that his car was missing and so was his phone, it didn t take him long to realize that he was being followed. It was already too late. And here he was now, pressed through a wall with nowhere to run.

Five. Four.

'Tok. Tok.'

The sound of stilettos became stronger, declaring Alvin s killer was a mere meter away. The darkness covering the park prevented Alvin to see the stranger s face - if this stranger was smiling, or making a pitiful face. What he knew was that this killer was holding a Celeb 340 - a classic muffler known to blow out an entire building in mere seconds without anybody noticing. He used it before.

Now this classic pistol will be used on him.

He swallowed, then he closed his eyes.

Three. Two.

When Alvin felt a small light flicker through his face, he dared open his eyes and saw the most unexpected thing about his killer that he never thought was possible. He saw his killer s face.

A striking pair of big, brown eyes.

Tears.

Alvin smiled for the very first time in his very miserable existence.

"Beautiful."

One.

"Wilson, has everything been prepared?"

"Yes, sir. Everything is in top-notch order since last night." The middle-aged secretary replied, his all-too-familiar British accent present in every word that succumbed his parched lips. Wilson passed him a thin Manila envelope containing a list of potential clients eager to create contracts with them.

As he handed the envelope to him, Wilson couldn t resist looking up and staring at this important man who had been the center of attention in the industry for the past three years. "Very young, yet very powerful," he thought quietly.

When this man came to learn about the business seven years ago, Wilson thought he was simply a young inheritor bloody crazy for his family s vast wealth. Wilson thought that smug eighteen-year-old kid, he was ordered to take care of would run back home crying after realizing how tough it was going to be. However, his thinking changed when he realized this "teenager" wasn t only planning on learning about managing his families hotels and industries; he was also attending Cambridge to get his PhD. It was tough to be devoted to both business and school, but he managed it without breaking apart.

Now, the chipmunk standing in front of Wilson wasn t the eighteen-year-old kid he had previously doubted on. Instead, here stood a confident twenty-five-year-old man known not only for his striking masculine features, but his powerful ideas alongside his strong, captivating voice that fascinated hundreds of new clients to invest in the business itself.

"Your flight is scheduled tomorrow morning at sunrise, sir. I have put you in the earliest flight as you have requested."

Simon nodded, then looked straight at Wilson.

"I told you not to call me sir , Wilson. Do it again and I may end up calling you Father ," a calm voice replied, his hands shuffling busily for papers to complete the documents resting on his desk. Wilson produced a hard, throaty laugh.

"Fine, fine. Shall I call you Doctor then, Simon?"

A small smile formed in his perfectly chiseled jaws.

"Heck, why not. That s always better than sir, after all."

Simon s flight took around ten hours amidst the turbulence interrupting the first class passengers. "If I sit there for a minute more, I ll scream," he thought. He felt nausea seeing the man in the business suit beside him, turning green as a result of the shaking plane. He was never fond of airplanes himself, but he needed to suck it up, if he wanted to attend his numerous business trips.

This trip however, wasn t for business. He wasn t here to attend a business summit or anything of the matter. This trip led him back to his hometown. Denver, Colorado.

He hadn t gone back once after arriving in United States seven years ago. He attended Cambridge to get his PhD and at the same time learned about his family s business. He never intended himself to be this busy. Not at all. But he wanted to do all these things to forget. About everything.

About her.

"Snap out of it." He ordered himself, and casually walked out of the plane. He elegantly strolled down Parkston Airport, feeling the hard stares given by the people around him. He could hear their thoughts now;

"Simon Seville! The youngest CEO in mankind s history!"

"Wasn t he in Time Magazine just a month ago?"

"I saw him on Oprah Last week!"

"He s HOOOT! "

He chuckled at the last comment, seeing that it probably came more from him than the group of middle-aged women circling around, wearing the newest pair of Prada. He looked around and noticed a small banner that read "Mr. Seville" waving up ahead.

"This way, Sir." A chipmunk in a tight black business suit guided him through a sleek black limousine, the car his father used when picking up clients from the airport. This time, he used it on his son.

"What kind of father refuses to pick his own son up in the airport himself?" He said loudly, not realizing he was overheard by his driver.

"Mr. Seville is away on a business trip, but he asked me to take you back to the main residence. He will come back in four days." His driver reported, his eyes sharply on the road.

Simon grumbled, but he didn t need to show that to his father s people. As the car started, he rolled out of the window to see the all too familiar scenery of his hometown. It was so nostalgic. The greenery that seemed to have maintained its abundant vegetation, the buildings that expanded - everything seemed different yet the same.

"Everything s changed," he thought.

It took less than fifteen minutes before they arrived at Seville main residence, when he quickly noticed its brilliant white exterior shinier than before. It must be his mother that took in charge to beautify the mansion, for he noticed the lavish garden sitting just behind the residence - there were flowers of every kind and color, along with strawberries, mangoes, and other such fruits that only his mother would choose.

"Baby, you re here!" A loud, jubilant voice came out from the mansion, showing the 5 6 figure of Clarice - Dave s girlfreind and Simon s friend.

He ran from the garden to the mansion s door and hugged his mother tight, that his mother started patting his back as a sign of short surrender.

"Sorry," he said, letting his friend go. You could probably say that behind the manly appearance lied a momma s boy.

"How are you, sweetie! Oh, it had been so long since I last saw you! Last month, when I visited you in Cambridge! You should have been the one visiting, you know." Theresa pouted, pinching the cheeks of her 6 2 giant of a son. Clarice, unlike her family, preferred to stay off the radar in order to lead a simple life. Her appearance was simple, but never unkempt. All she wanted to do was take care of her family from behind the scene, and she was happy without all the attention.

"Things were busy so I never had time," he replied, his blue eyes feasting around the household that seemed unrecognizable. The family kitchen which had been big to begin with was made to be even bigger, a marble table added along the side and a bigger sink. The living room was redecorated to match a Victorian style atmosphere, satin curtains added along everywhere.

He started to wonder if his room which he made clear to be off-limits was touched as well. He looked at his friend with worried eyes. She produced a joyful laugh as if she knew what he was thinking.

"Oh, Sweetie. I never touched your room. I was tempted, oh so tempted. But I only went in there to clean. Nothing else," she raised her hands, clearly claiming her innocence. He chuckled in reply.

"Are you going in your room, sweetie? Cause I forgot to dust it off. Your father and I were in Hawaii for a whole week. I came back two days ago to prepare for your arrival." Theresa turned to her left to tell the cook to prepare his favorite: turkey roast with gravy and cranberry sauce. Just like Thanksgiving.

"I can t. I need to run back to the office to get the clients off my back." Simon answered, already packing the papers in neat piles before taking them.

"But you just got here!" His friend looked mad; angry even. "I thought you re here on vacation!"

"I am. I just needed these dropped off, then I m off the hook for a while." He held his friend s shoulders. She sighed.

"Fine. But you re not leaving until you eat. That s final, Simon." He smiled. "Yes, boss."

After a hearty lunch, Simon looked at the time to see that it was already four in the afternoon. He took his all time favorite car, a classic Mercedes-Benz, and drove through Seville's Headquarters. The skyscraper building, unlike his house, hadn t change a bit in seven years.

"It still looks like a skyscraper," he thought, and entered the building. He noticed a few of the employees stop dead in their tracks to witness the arrival of their CEO who had finally showed himself in person, and not his measly British secretary to attend in his place.

"Welcome back to Denver, Dr. Simon," a few of them greeted, while the others were too nervous to go near him. He nodded and went straight to the office assigned for him by his father. The mahogany desk greeted him as he entered, along with leather couches and a glass table sitting on the center. A wide glass window was placed on the right, where he could see the great view of Colorado, and the sky gleefully bright and sunny.

A woman in bright red blazer and a short office skirt entered his office, a smile plastered on her face.

"Welcome back, Dr. Simon. Here is the list you asked for over the phone," she purred. She noticed his buff body under his black silk shirt and her eyes twinkled in fascination. She was about to hand it to him when she accidentally dropped the thin piece of paper and provocatively bended down to show him her luscious thighs. When she looked up expecting him to be in awe, he had somehow teleported to the edge of the room reaching for a book. In embarrassment, she placed the paper in his desk and quickly excused herself.

"That was close," he thought. It was his first day and no way in hell was he going to sleep with his father s secretary. He only thought about dropping by, but as he noticed the pile of work to be done, he sat down and had gotten himself started.

Several hours later, he felt exhausted signing the stack of papers when he noticed that it was already dark. 10:20 pm. He had been in the office for almost six hours with the help of coffee and snacks delivered to him by his assistant. He closed the folder and decided to head home.

Weird, he thought. No one was in the office. He then remembered his assistant saying that he d be heading home at 9 pm, but he ignored him and busied himself with the paperwork. He walked down the parking lot and opened his car, when suddenly he felt someone behind him.

Simon slowly turned around and what he saw behind him was a chipmunk.

And he was holding a gun.

He thought that the man could be in his middle thirties, his disheveled clothing and unfamiliar face proved that he doesn t work in the office. However, the way this man was holding the gun - his fingers intently touching the trigger and his hands straight and accurate meant that he could be a rogue; a killer hired by someone to do his bidding, and the bidding was to kill the heir of Seville's Industries.

"Who ordered you?" Simon asked, his voice commanding yet humble at the same time. He thought it was the best way to get the man distracted. However, he did not answer. Instead, he pushed the trigger.

The chipmunk shot his gun.

Simon opened his eyes, although he never noticed closing it in the first place. He looked down at himself to see where he was shot, but saw no sign of blood. He wasn t hurt.

Strange.

He looked up to see if the chipmunk had jammed his gun, but instead he saw the man s lifeless body lingering down the cold concrete floor of the parking lot. He was dead.

Simon s body froze. He slowly moved forward to see a better look of the man, and saw a pierced hole right through his head. Bull's eye.

Someone had shot the chipmunk before the chipmunk could shoot Christopher.

He quickly looked around to see his protector, and noticed that on the very far left was a thin figure of a woman. He looked at her and his eyes widened in disbelief.

It wasn t possible.

He couldn t see the face clearly as the distance was great, but what he noticed was a chipmunk in a jean jacket, standing on the side. Her brown hair rested on her waist, her bare legs longer than any other chipmunk he had ever seen. Instead of feeling panic because this alluring stranger was holding a muffler which killed his killer, he felt disbelief when looking at her eyes.

They were purple.

The purple eyes he knew since childhood; those innocent pair of eyes that he adored ever since he was teenager. Those same pair of eyes he tried to forget.

They were now cold, frozen - heartless. Even so, the similarities between this chipmunk and the girl he loved was too great. It couldn t be...

"Jeanette?" 


	3. The Reunion

"Jeanette?"

He started moving towards the red-headed figure, too amazed to make any sudden movements. He didn't know what else to do; better yet he doesn't know how to react. As he started moving forward, the chipmunk in purple stared in disbelief; she recalled the moments when her victims tried their best to run away from her. This chipmunk, however, was not running away, but instead moving towards her.

The chipmunk merely stared - she was either too appalled at his bravery or too stunned at his stupidity. By the time she snapped out of her thoughts, he was now standing five feet away from her.

This time, she could see him clearly.  
"Jeanette?"

The chipmunk asked again, his husky voice quivering. The man standing in front of her was what she usually considered a "pretty chipmunk," someone with God - Given features that lots of people would kill for. He could be at least six feet, as he easily towered over her 5'6 body. He had a strong built - his muscles apparent under his blue sweater. His face was of an angel; clear chiseled jaws, short midnight - colored hair that chipmunk would love to dig their fingers through, those pale ruby lips and those purple eyes that seemed to be able to look through the person in front of it.

Right now that same pair of eyes are looking straight at her. She shuddered.

As she looked down to avoid his watchful glare, she realized that she was still holding her firearm, and it snapped her back to reality. Just mere seconds ago she had shot her target, and she had completely forgotten the chipmunk standing in front of her was a witness. When she started this particular kind of lifestyle, she established herself three rules that saved her life for the past years;

One - You must never have sympathy for your target.

Two - Never harbor feelings for anyone.

Three - Witnesses must be terminated.

And with that, she raised her hand and held her gun towards the chipmunk.

The chipmunk just stood there. He didn't move an inch. Unlike her former targets, this man wasn't begging for his life, he wasn't even bribing her. He merely stood there.

This made her feel uneasy.

"Why am I resisting?" She thought to herself. She can feel it - a sort of resistance, coming from inside her. It wasn't like her to resist. She knew she had to terminate the handsome witness in front of her if she wants to completely finish the job.

But she couldn't.

"Shoot me." He ordered.

This time, his voice wasn't quivering. The red-headed woman stared at him once again in disbelief because for some reason, this man couldn't cease to amaze her.

"He's interesting," she thought, and lowered her gun. The chipmunk with the captivating blue eyes tilted his head in confusion.

"You're not shooting me then?" He asked.

"No." She replied, and she moved forward, so her face was only inches away from him.

"Not today," she whispered in his ears, and then she moved back and started walking away.

"Wait!" He yelled, and she stopped dead in her tracks, but she didn't look back. She wanted to hear what he had to say.

"Are you Jeanette?" He asked for the fourth time. His voice this time wasn't quivering, or commanding. This time his voice sounded lonely; sad; pitiful. Something inside her twisted in knots.

She looked back at him, and presented him with the coldest glare.

"No."

"Two coffees please! One without sugar and the other with whip cream on top."

The chipmunk with the bleached blonde hair said as she returned the menu.

"No problem, coming right up." The waitress responded, and then quietly excused herself. As she walked towards the coffee machine, she turned back to watch the couple she had just served seconds ago. The chipmunk with the bleached blonde hair seemed so happy with the guy she was with, as her smile was genuine while talking to him. The guy, however, was not so genuine, as the waitress could see him constantly look down to check his phone or check out the girl sitting behind his girlfriend while she was happily talking about her trip to Florida.

"Bastard," the waitress thought to herself, when a pair of small fingers snapped in front of her face.

"Aris, daydreaming again?" A petite chipmunk with long brown curly hair chuckled, her right hand on her hip. Aris looked down to find her co-worker and best friend looking impatiently at her.

"Of course not," Aris answered, and she turned around to pour espresso in the coffee mugs.

"Bull." Zena replied back, a huge smirk on her face. "It was so obvious you were looking at those two over there," she pointed at the two. "The Princess and the wolf." Zena sighed, and Aris laughed in response. The guy had been their regular customer for the past three months since they both started working at their local cafe, "Deja Vu." They've seen the guy they referred as "the wolf" bring in different girls every time he comes in.

"Poor chipmunk. It's the third day already. He'll break her heart today," Aris said in pity, looking at the sixth girl he's brought in this month alone. Zena looked at the couple in question. "You're right. He always breaks up with them on the third day."

Suddenly, as if he overheard, "the wolf" suddenly turned around to look in their direction. Without giving a glance at the girl talking merrily in front of him, he winked at them.

Zena smiled back, while Aris slapped Zena's shoulders in disgust.

"Hey!" Zena protested, "I can't help it, you know. I know he's a womanizing jerk, but he is definitely one hot womanizing jerk. No complains there, eh?"

Aris gagged.  
The two laughed in unison. Then, before Zena could take the coffees to the customers, she looked at Aris.

"By the way, redhead. Where were you yesterday? I was calling your phone, but you didn't answer. The other day too!" Zena grumbled. Aris patted her head.

"I went to visit my grandfather. He was sick." She replied as she was putting her long hair on a bun.

"Again? Wow. He's been sick a lot this time around. Hopefully, he feels better." Zena pinched Aris' cheeks and walked away leaving Aris in silence.

It was 11 pm and the dark skies of Denver hinted of upcoming rain as the sound of thunderstorms steadily increased.

Simon drove slowly as he tried to match the neighborhood's minimum speed; his eyes wandering left and right as he tried to find the establishment residing on the address that his mother had given him on a tiny piece of paper.

"This is where your cousin works, Simon. Go fetch her before the rain starts pouring hard." She ordered.

Damn it, he thought. The neighborhood wasn't big to begin with, but seven years was enough to make him forget where things were. Besides, yesterday's events were too much on him already. He was frozen for several hours as he tried to remember the woman who closely resembled Jeanette. Her brown hair, her brown fur, and her big purple eyes. He missed her.

But that chipette cannot be her.

Jeanette was already dead.

He could still remember when his father called him a month after he had arrived in United States that she had passed away. That time, he was still confused as to why she had broken up with him with such unclear reasons. His father told him that Priscilla had a car accident and was dead on spot. He could still remember not eating unless forced to, and how emotionless he had been that awful year. But somehow he pushed all those feelings into work, into finishing University, and into being a man worthy to become someone. Still, a flicker of hope was still inside him. No matter how much he wanted the flicker ignited, it just keeps on getting bigger. After yesterday's events, that flicker had become a forest fire.

A forest fire of hope.

He blinked, trying to bring himself back to reality.

He was about to give up searching when he saw a small building with colorful Christmas light attracting everyone who sees it.

"There it is," he thought.  
He found a slot where he placed his car and walked inside.

"Welcome to Deja Vu Cafe!" Two chipmunks wearing Santa hats welcomed him in the front. He noticed them blush, but shrugged it off and instead went straight to the point.

"Do you know where I can find my cousin, Zena Seville? She works here."

One of the girls nodded and pointed to the kitchen. "Can you tell her that her cousin is here? I'll be sitting around." He thanked the girl who seemed more than happy to do the favor and found himself a seat on the corner of the cafe.

"May I take your order?"  
He turned around expecting his cousin when he saw the girl behind him looking at him with wide eyes. His eyes widened too.

It's her - the girl from yesterday.  
"Uh..." She groaned quietly, and as she turned around to run away, he simply held her wrist, yanked her down, and kissed her. 


	4. The Revival

The ride home was painful, torturous, horrible.

Awkward. Extremely awkward.

As Simon tried to focus his eyes on the wet, slippery road while his hands rested on the wheel, he couldn't be at ease as he could feel Zena's watchful eyes beside him.

"Stop staring at me." He commanded, but she didn't listen. Instead, she started laughing. This infuriated him even more.

"So, what's up with you and my best friend, huh?" She asked; a huge smirk on her face. He didn't respond hoping that she would stop with the questions. However, knowing his cousin, she wouldn't care about other people's feeling or about reading the heavy atmosphere - if she wanted something, she would get it.

She continued, "I mean I love you, and I love my best friend too. But if you hurt her I swear, Simon, I will-"

"I don't know her; better yet I know nothing about her. That's all there is to it." He responded coldly, and he felt relief as he could see the mansion a block away - a few more minutes before he could get away from his cousin, who decided not to stop there.

"Then why did you kiss her?" Zena asked - curiosity evident from her twinkling eyes.

This question stopped him dead in his tracks.

Why did he do it?

Flashback came to him as fast as lightning as he remembered what occurred in the cafe an hour ago as he went to pick up his cousin.

"May I take your order?" A calm, feminine voice asked as he sat on the corner of the cafe, waiting for Zena.

He turned around expecting his cousin to be pulling off some sort of prank when he saw the crimson-haired woman he met yesterday. This took him by complete surprise - the mysterious, alluring chipmunk holding a gun had turned into a pretty-looking waitress asking for his order. However, as she turned around with the full intention of running away, he felt something inside him - Pain.

When she turned around, it promptly reminded him of that unforgettable day seven years ago, when Priscilla had decided to break up with him; the way she looked when she was saying those painful words, and the way she turned her back at him as to run away from hope itself - he felt like he was reliving that very exact moment.

So this time, he didn't let her go away.

This time, he wouldn't. He couldn't.

So he kissed her.

Their lips touched, and in an instant everything didn't matter. He recalled his few affairs with English chipmunks back in Cambridge, but those few rounds of loveless sex couldn't compare with the tender kiss he was sharing right now with this mystical chipmunk.

It didn't last long though, because as soon he realized what he had done, she quickly pulled away and slapped him right across his face.

He was speechless at everything that had happened, and before he could react she ran away.

"We're here." He said coldly, as he applied the brakes and parked on front of the main residence. Without waiting for his cousin he came out of the car and went straight into his room, where he felt like he could quietly die in peace.

She hates him.

She hates his guts, his boldness - hell, even his magnificent, God-given glorious looks. He was a witness; a pesky witness that she foolishly let go. Now he dared kiss her.

She should have shot him.

"Aris."

She froze.

There are only two things she fears in this world.

One - The Ocean, or any particular bodies of water.

Two - The chipmunk named Barclay.

To the public, Barclay was known to be an old chipmunk residing in the suburban side of Denver with billions of money to spare and no heir to share the wealth with. To the public, he took in a six-year-old orphan, he named her Aris, to become his inheritor and become her father figure. However, only a number of people knew of his real identity, and all of them have secrets of their own.

They didn't know about a secret organization called Midnight Society - or its very deadly existence.

Instead of living in a typical middle class household where a normal child would have lived, Aris resided in an underground manor where she was taught to hold knives and disarm weapons. Her toys weren't Barbie dolls or stuff bears, but rifles and pistols. She didn't go to high school, but was tutored right at home, where she was taught not only the basic curriculum, but also the ways of executing a person.

Now, at age twenty-five, she had killed more than enough people than she could count. It wasn't so bad though, as all the people she had killed had a bad agenda behind them - rapists, killers, unjust politicians, illegal drug lords, and much more. Barclay was the face behind Midnight Society.

-The largest, most hunted assassin organization in the country; her family.

Barclay was an old man now, in his sixty-third year of existence. He was a cold man, but he took care of her.

"How have you been?" Barclay asked, his voice low and commanding.

Aris swallowed.

"I've finished my last mission. Joseph Seville had been terminated." She answered, and looked straight at those haunting pair of gray eyes. She knew how well this conversation worked. Aris knew that if she looked away after answering his question, he'd know that she had messed up. When she was nineteen and had let her target get away, when he asked that same question she averted from his eyes. Her target was reported killed from a "car accident" the next day, but she knew it was one of her "family" that had finished the mission for her. Barclay had found out what happened and not only was the target dead, his wife and two daughters were wiped out as well.

She hated herself from that moment on, as she knew it was her fault. If she had only terminated her target, the wife and the daughters would still be alive.

It was her fault.

"I see." Barclay replied, and walked away.

She hated lying to him, but she had no choice after all. If Barclay had found out that there was a witness, and she had let him get away, Barclay would fix my mistake; which means killing the witness, and worst - the witness' family as well.

Aris was definitely enraged at Simon Seville's action this evening, but deep down she knew that he didn't deserve to die; bitter torture for kissing her - now that's justified punishment, but death was out of the question. He hasn't done anything to deserve death - not to her knowledge anyway.

Besides, she doesn't want to repeat the same thing that happened before.

"I have to do something." She thought, and ran out.

I have to do something before it's too late.

Simon had been lying on his bed, shirtless, for the past two hours. His eyes were closed, but his wrinkled forehead revealed that he was still awake.

"How can I sleep?" He thought. Today was heck for him after all, no questions asked.

Simon groaned.

He opened his eyes and looked up straight into the white, marble ceiling.  
"How could someone look so much like... Jeanette." He thought. "She saved me too, from that killer. I don't know what she is or what she does but..." He scrunched his forehead.

He knew that she was dangerous, that girl. At first glance he knew she wasn't a normal chipmunk - besides, the pistol she was holding last night was proof that she wasn't just a waitress at a local cafe . She was dangerous... but...

"I want to see her again."

He got up from his bed. "Might as well get some work done." He told himself, and opened up the suitcase filled with paperwork that Wilson warned him not to bring. As he began signing the contract document with Phlox Oil Company, he suddenly felt the wind blow. As he looked to his right, he noticed his windows were opened.

They weren't opened before.  
Something wasn't right, he thought. When he walked over to the window, he popped his head out to check if someone was there, and noticed nothing different - just a normal, windy night in Denver.

As Simon closed the windows, he failed to notice the red strand of hair stuck between the rears of the glass, or the woman on top of the roof discreetly watching over him.

"Are you certain about the location this time?"  
The chipmunk on the line asked, his hoarse voice shaking with excitement.  
"Yes sir. We are certain that the person in question had been spotted right here in the United States." A womanly voice answered.  
"Excellent." The chipmunk on the line felt relief for the first time in a very long time. He had been looking for Crimson since he could remember - this time, he might actually find her.

"We have rounded up the last three places the target had been through." The chipmunk continued. "It is most certain that Crimson had finally arrived in Denver, Colorado at exactly forty-five hours after her departure in New York."

"I'm on my way then." The chipmunk on the line responded.  
"Be careful, Kingston. You may be the best person for the job right now, but it will be a huge loss for us if you died too." She stated with concern.  
He gave a hearty laugh.  
"I won't die easily, Betsy. And even if I did, the Central Intelligence can always find a substitute." He said in response.

"You must be successful this time, Kingston. No one had ever seen her face nor does she have any record. Maybe the others had already seen her but... you already know what happened to them, right?"

Silence.

"Yes." Kingston said his goodbye and put the phone down.

What a hell of a job, he thought to himself. Kingston shuffled through the documents in front of him and found a tiny piece of paper that sparked his interest.

With a phone in his hand, he dialed the number and it began to ring.  
"Hello?" The person on the other line picked up.  
Kingston smiled.

"Simon, it's me. Kingston - Derek Kingston." 


	5. The Real Fun Begins

As the clock strikes seven, the squeaking sound made by the humongous vintage doors indicated that Deja Vu Cafe was opening for the day, and Zena, forced to wake up in the morning - begrudgingly welcomed the first customers raring to get their coffees in their hands as the first snowfall of the year dropped nearly five meters last night.

"Welcome!" She greeted them, but most of them passed her by as if she was nothing but weightless paper.

She sighed loudly, which caught some of the customer's attentions. A hand softly touched her on the shoulder.

"You've got to stop doing that." Aris pleaded, a serving tray on her right hand.  
Zena shrugged her shoulders. "Tell them to stop ignoring me! Eugh, this is why I hate morning shifts!" Aris merely handed her the tray and held her shoulders.

"Why are you working here?"

"Because I spent my money on a boat."

"And what happened to that boat?"

"It broke."

"So what are you doing now?"

"Earning money for a new boat."

"Then go start earning, bud."

Aris handed the tray full of coffee to her unwilling best friend, and let her go. The two met coincidentally last year, at the most unexpected way. At that time, Aris had just finished her "assignment" in Florida and was aching to find a hotel. It was her twenty-fourth birthday, and although she had no one to celebrate it with, she thought spoiling herself with room service wasn't such a bad way to do it, considering the unlimited cash just hiding itself in the platinum card given to her by Barclay.

"For emergency," he said to her.

Well, I guess you consider this self-pity situation an emergency, she thought to herself, and checked in.

There, she met the very drunk Zena who had just broken up with her boyfriend, lounging around the hotel lobby - penniless. For some reason, Aris decided to walk up to this girl and have a talk. They talked about the boring atmosphere in Florida, the sunny weather that won't quit; they even talked about each other's problems, although Aris had to do a little revision in her part of the conversation.

While in the middle of their heartfelt conversation, Aris realized that she had been sitting in the hotel lobby for the past two hours, talking to a complete stranger - and nothing more. She realized that this time, she wasn't talking to this stranger because she was a target, nor was this stranger trying to run away from the sound of her footsteps.

"So this is what it feels like, huh." Aris wondered.  
This must be what it feels like to have a friend.

"So, what's your name?" The chipette asked, her innocent blue eyes big and intense from pure curiosity.

"Aris."

"Nice name," the girl replied. "I'm Zena. Zena Thomas."  
Zena stood up and held Aris' hands.

"Say, Aris, you wanna go to Denver with me?"  
After Zena's sudden invitation, Aris was intrigued by the idea of having a new life, and thoroughly talked things through with Barclay. He agreed, as long as she doesn't forget about her "real identity." Eight months later, she found herself getting used to her new lifestyle - that is until she met Zena's cousin. Aris felt like her mood darkened after the last thought.

Aris sighed, and silently thought of the things she found out about this 'interesting' man.  
Simon Seville - 13 years old, a Cambridge University Graduate with a PhD in hand. Intensely rich - sole heir of Seville Hotels and Industries. Resided in Cambridge, United States, but previously lived right here in Denver until he was Seventeen Years old. He had been a target of assassination since he turned twenty-two, when his name became big in the business world.

Marital Status: Single.

Aris mentally slapped herself for suddenly feeling giddy about his marital status. She never usually cared if her target was in a relationship or was married, but this man wasn't a target - not hers anyway.

Even so, why does she care? When he kissed her, she was mad - wasn't she? Because that was her first kiss. She laughed at herself - an assassin scared of big bad boys who knew how to kiss.

Besides, Aris doesn't have any responsibility with this man - she doesn't even know why she cared. Barclay knew nothing about her mess up, so she should be fine.

"Hello, Aris." A hand took a hold of her fingers, and delicately kissed it.

If it was another person who had done that, her instincts would have reacted quickly enough that the person in question would be kicked right out of the roof by now. This man however, holds power enough to counter her attack. She just stared at him as he looked up, his hands still holding hers.

"Hey Tyler."

Tyler Seville - Barclay's grandson and second-in-command. He had been trying to propose Aris for quite a long time, along with the other girls on his very long list.

"Big time playboy, this man." Aris thought to herself. He definitely has the looks - short dirty blonde hair, gray eyes just like his grandfather, and a smile that won't quit. He had the body too - she actually thought he was hot, but that was before.

"What is it?" She asked, curious as to why he was there with her in Denver, when he should have been in Malaysia on a "business trip."

"The air is chilly, don't you think so, red? Lots of things are going on." He replied in a monotone voice. When he noticed that this got her attention, he went close to her and whispered; "You're being targeted, Crimson. Watch out for your witness too. Barclay said to watch him."

When Tyler pulled away, he noticed her frozen expression. Both of them were now sitting on the corner of the cafe, with nobody to overhear their dire conversation.

"He knows." She whispered in disbelief - Barclay knew about Simon Seville.

Tyler merely smirked. "What doesn't he know?" He said in a matter-of-fact tone.

He stopped talking for a second, and then he looked at her.

"I have no idea what's going on, but CIA's in your ass again. I tried to get them off your trail the past few months, but we got info that they sent someone again, and this one ain't normal." Aris listened intently to Tyler, her mind getting weaker with every word. Since CIA found out about a family being in a mysterious "car accident" eight years ago, they were able to gather information that an assassin with codename "Crimson" had done the deed, and many more devious ones as well.

They had been trying to find her ever since, but with the help of Tyler and the others, she was able to escape them. However, the case this time had not seem to differ from her previous cases, so she asked Tyler something else.

"Wait. Why does Barclay know about Christopher Thomas? And why would he want me to protect him?"

Tyler took a sip from the coffee she gave him earlier. "Eugh, too sweet. Sugar?"

Aris nodded, and he shrugged. "No frickin' idea. But word is, Barclay and your witness' grandpa were tight before, so when Barclay found out you didn't kill the grandson, he was more relieved that angry. The old fart basically sent me to tell you to protect his best buddy's grandson."

"Why?" She couldn't help herself.

He looked at her. "Because there are others besides us that kill people for a living. This time, Barclay found that they're after that Thomas guy. His family got eyes all over UK when he was there, but none in Denver since it was off-limits for them here or somethin'. The grandpa talked to Barclay, and magic! Here I am telling you to protect him."

"But.. But..." She tried to say that she couldn't stand him, but was somehow resisting. Tyler stood up.

"I know about that kiss too, little lady." He smiled. She stood up to punch him when his left hand caught her wrist and his right hand touched her face.

"I wasn't joking about that proposal, you know." He whispered, his gray eyes suddenly clearer and his expression abruptly soft.

Tyler pulled Aris towards him when something strong took a hold of Tyler's hand and pushed him away.

Aris turned to see Christopher standing right in front of her, his broad back towards her as a means of protection as he faced Tyler.

"Excuse me for interrupting. but I see that she doesn't like you very much, so you should get the hell away from here." Christopher tried to calm his voice, but irritation got the best of him. Tyler merely stared at him, and started laughing.

"Speaking of the devil," he said in a low voice. He put his hands up as a sign of surrender, winked at Aris, and walked away, leaving Christopher and her alone.

"Simon." She said.  
He turned around to face her, and she noticed that his green eyes were quite fuzzy.

"Are you okay?" He asked. He looked at her, top to bottom; to see if the man she was talking to had done something stupid.

She simply nodded; she was stunned. It was the first time anyone tried to protect her, even if it is from Tyler. She tried to clear her head.

"Are you looking for Zena? She's inside, if you want me to call he-"

"No." He responded, and then he smiled. "I just wanted some coffee. Can you get me some?"

"Ah, yeah."

She turned to prepare his coffee when he spoke again.

"I'm sorry about yesterday." He said in a low voice. She turned towards him. On the coffee table wearing an elegant dark midnight suit sat a man praised for both his masculine looks and hard work - the same man she would soon start to protect, was now awkwardly covering his face in embarrassment as he tried to apologize.

"Don't worry about it." She finally responded, and his eyes lit up. She giggled inside her head. "Don't worry about it; I've kissed other guys worse than you." She continued, and walked away, leaving a very stunned Christopher behind.

Derek checked his watch to see that it was already two in the afternoon.

"That punk's late." He said to himself as he waited for Simon to pick him up from the airport. This will be the first time the two would see each other again since he visited Simon six years ago in USA.

He remembered being at Priscilla's funeral and how completely devastated he was to see Priscilla's closed casket on the middle of the chapel. They said her limp body was completely destroyed that they needed to close it; this killed him inside.

However, he was more furious that Simon wasn't there at all. When he asked Christopher's mother, she told him that he had already been living in Cambridge for months after the two had broken up. At that time, Derek was still trying to make a name for himself after making it to the Federal Bureau - months before the Central Intelligence had noticed him.

Derek visited Simon after the funeral to see that he was just as destroyed as Priscilla was; he looked like a living corpse, so Derek refrained from asking him anything. Seven years later, here they are now.

He had always thought Simon would become a great man, who would use his own efforts to succeed, and he did. What he didn't know was that he would make it too - he thought he was going to be nothing more than a cop in Denver, but to make it as far as Central Intelligence and to become a promising one at that, he was impressed.

"Besides, I need to find Crimson. She's here somewhere." He thought. When his superiors finally noticed him, they gave him the case that had four of their people dead on spot. It was a top case - a secret case. They called it Mission: Crimson.

Crimson was the codename of an assassin who had been having fun killing people around the world, but was never noticed until she made the stupid mistake of killing a whole family in plain sight.

"I'll get you." His hands turned into a tight fist, when someone slapped his shoulder. He turned around to see Christopher standing behind him, a huge smile on his face.

"Hey, bud. Good to see you again."

Sitting on top of the Seville Mansion was a chipmunk. She climbed up and tiptoed from the edge of the roof until she reached Christopher's window. She looked to the left, and then to the right to see if anyone had followed her.

"Great." She thought. She was about to enter the opened window when she realized that she had just walked into a trap, and was too late. A hand grabbed her inside and before she knew it, she was knocked down.

"Good grief." Aris thought to herself as she looked down at the unconscious body of the woman who planned to infiltrate Christopher's room with the main objective of killing him.

"That makes her the third to try today," she said out loud. With a flick of her fingers two men appeared from nowhere and took the unconscious assassin.

"Don't kill her, just try to get information. You guys can go." Aris ordered them, and they were gone. The Mansion was empty today, since Mrs. Seville was away on another vacation and allowed all of their help to have a vacation as well.

"They thought it was the perfect time to get rid of Christopher," she realized. But they were wrong, because they didn't know - heck even Simon didn't know - that she was there to protect him now. As she waited for the others to attack, she walked around his room. It was humongous - she felt like she could fit in thirty people inside and still have room for a swimming pool.

She plopped herself in his bed. "King-size, of course." She laughed. It was soft, and it smelled like him, like sweet cologne. She felt her cheeks go red. Before she could swear she got up suddenly as something caught her eye.

It was a necklace.  
Lying on top of the mahogany study desk was a simple, silver necklace. She stared at its quiet beauty; the simple chain appeared light, but if you looked clearly white gold was encircling the whole chain as if depicting letters. A message, she thought. She held it up on the light, trying to decode the message written on it. But before she could read the words, the door opened revealing a puzzled Simon.

"Aris?"  
She dropped the necklace, and before she had the chance to pick it up, the glass window shattered revealing three men in full - black, their guns in hand. "This is good distraction." She thought to herself.

As fast as humanly possible she flew from the end of the room towards the door where the confused Christopher was. Holding the door in her hand she faced him.

"I'll protect you, so run." Then she slammed the door, leaving her alone inside with the three men.

"Who the hell are you?" The first one glowered, his bald head covered with what looked like wrinkles. "So he's the leader of the goons," she thought. She looked at them with a sickening grin.

"I'm Jessica Seville's daughter!" She said with enthusiasm. This irritated the goon leader as his wrinkles doubled in number, and his eyes got darker.

"She's just a kid." The second goon said as he tried to calm the first one. Leader goon raised his hand and pointed his pistol towards Aris.

"Let me make things easier," he said. "How about you get away from that door and give that billionaire to us, huh? His head's worth enough for us all!" He snorted, and his companions did the same.

"Disgusting." Aris thought. She stepped one foot forward and the three suddenly stopped laughing. "Hey, by any chance. Have you heard about someone named Crimson?" She asked them.

"I have." The third one finally spoke. "I hear she's really good with them, guns. I hear she wiped New York clean of them nasty gangs in three days. Legend, of course." He said in a proud tone, as if he doesn't believe such one exists.

She smirked. "So they keep getting worse day by day, huh. Well." She moved forward again, this time, reaching something out of her bag. "Say, what gun does she use?" Aris asked him again, her voice sly this time.

"I hear it's a Celeb prototype. It's rare - that kind of pistol."

She showed them her gun. A Celeb 3000 - her favorite. They froze in place. "Last question - why do you think they call her Crimson?" She asked the leader this time, and he started shaking. Not long ago she was several feet away, but suddenly she was right there, inches in distance and a smile on her face. He knew the answer to her question.

"Because she has the longest, most beautiful crimson colored hair."

Gunshots.

Simon had been banging on the door for the past several minutes; his hands were bleeding from the force he was putting it through.

"Aris, open the door!" He yelled out, but she didn't respond. He heard muffled voices on the other side of the door, but he couldn't make out the words. Then Gunshots.

"ARIS! DAMMIT! OPEN THE DOOR!" He yelled out again, this time he started kicking it. She must have locked herself in, with all those dangerous people inside, he thought. He remembered her say that she would protect him before she locked herself in with them. His mind darkened.

"What the heck! Protect me? I'm supposed to be the one protecting you! Aris!" This time, he kicked it so hard the door practically flew open, revealing a lifeless body in the middle - Aris.

Without hesitation, Simon ran straight to her and held her tight.

"Aris, wake up!" He started shaking her. Seconds later he heard her grumble and her brown eyes opened slowly.  
"You're alive," Simon said in relief, and moved her hair away from her face. Aris pushed him back.

"I'm fine." She said simply, and tried to stand when she felt a sudden pain. She looked down. Simon followed her gaze and saw that her right leg was bleeding - she was shot. "This is nothing." She tried to take another step when all of a sudden her feet weren't touching the ground, and she felt like she was flying. She looked to see that Christopher had carried her in his arms.

"Put me down," she ordered. He pretended not to hear her, and carried her to his bed. "Let me go!" She pounded on his back, but he didn't care. When they reached his bed, he pinned her down. He took her gun and threw it all the way to the other side of the room, then finally he looked her straight in the eyes.

"You and I are going to have a very, very long talk tonight." 


	6. Odd Friendship

As Aris tries to avoid his eyes, she couldn't help but feel happy inside. Before Simon was able to open the door, she managed to end her battle resulting to three very bloodshot- looking men. They were pretty good, but not good enough. Her comrades, who came in too late, were able to take away the bodies of the three goons before Simon had the chance to see them. What she didn't know though, was that he was so worried for her that he came in crashing his own bedroom door to see if she was still alive.

No one had ever done that for her.

Suddenly, she flinched at the sudden pain pressuring her leg. She squirmed.

Simon looked up to see her enduring the pain as he tried to manually take the bullet away from her leg - where she was shot. While in United States he had done several operations but this was the first he had a case with bullet wounds.  
"This will be over in a second," he assured her, and held her shaking leg as he slowly guided the bullet out. "Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?"

"No, I'll be fine. I can't be there like this or else they would become suspicious," she answered.  
When he thought about it, he agreed with her. Even he would be suspicious if a stunning - looking woman were to come to him with a bullet in her leg- he would ask her all sort of her questions which he knew she won't be able to answer.

When the bullet was pulled out, Simon carefully wrapped her right leg with bandage. When he was done, he looked at her and smiled.  
"You're good, but you won't be able to walk properly for a few days."  
She nodded in response, but he could tell that she was thinking about something else inside her head.

"Don't you dare do that again, you hear me?" He commanded. "What happened to those guys? Did they escape when-"  
"They're dead." She responded in a cold tone, and he felt himself shudder. "They were after your life."

He stopped smiling, and merely watched her.  
Beautiful this chipmunk was- her long lush of scarlet hair falling softly on her waist, her porcelain skin that shone through the night when he first saw her, her brown eyes that slowly melted his heart, and her soft expression when she was thinking about something.  
Then he remembered about the battle she had with those mysterious hoodlums in his bedroom an hour ago, and the fact that all three had died in minutes.

This chipmunk, what is she?  
He held her wrist, and she looked at him with surprise.

"What do you do?" He asked.  
She stopped thinking about the possibilities of the other assassins taking advantage of her injury to attack and thought about Simon's question. What does she do? - She does everything, really. She had poisoned people, blackmailed them, and of course terminated them. But what can she tell him? When Barclay sent Tyler to tell her to protect Simon, she realized that Simon was someone important, even to the underground world. Besides, she felt strongly about his safety too, as he appeared to feel strongly about her safety as well - and what was the point of lying? The first time they met, he had seen her kill her last target.  
After a short pause, she answered. "I kill people for a living."

"I see." He simply said. "So what were you doing in my room?"  
This took her aback - she wasn't sure whether to feel happy or sad that he accepted her just like that and was able to ask another question so easily.  
"I was sent to protect you."  
"By who?"  
"That's classified information."  
"So how long have you been protecting me?"  
"I started today."  
"Ah." He nodded. A short pause later, Simon stood up.

"I refuse."  
He turned around to see her completely unaffected by his decision, when she suddenly spoke.  
"So do I, really-" She paused, and then she looked at him.

"-but I have to do it anyway."  
This made him go completely insane inside. "Do you really want to die!?" He yelled at her as she sat in his bed.  
"These guys are after me, so let them! If you get caught in the middle, who knows what could happen!" He continued.

He looked to see if she had finally realized of her situation, but she just started laughing. Seconds later, she was beside him, a knife in hand and ready to lounge for his throat.

"I'm not weak," she whispered in his ear - the same way she whispered when they first met. He was clearly astonished at her speed, but he noticed something.  
She was slower than before.  
He quickly grabbed her wrist and twisted it so she would let go of the knife, then grabbed both her arms and placed it behind her. Aris tried to force her hands off his grip but his sturdy hold on her was too strong. All of a sudden, Simon noticed a sudden flicker of light coming outside his window, and Aris took this chance to pull herself out from his grip.

"You... You're pretty strong." Aris said in surprised astonishment. Simon chuckled. "I workout."  
"Well, I guess that would be it. You can handle yourself, so I'll just go-" She tried to escape from his window when a hand had pulled her down.

"No way in hell are you jumping off the window with that fresh wound on your leg." He commanded. "Sleep here tonight." Simon ordered, pointing to his bed. "After all, those bad people might come visit me tonight."  
Aris couldn't believe this guy. "If they did, you'd be beating them up in no time. You don't need me." Simon took his shirt off, leaving Aris feeling uncomfortable on the side.

"I don't know who told you to watch over me, but now you have to start doing your job. I feel like I've stepped on a landmine since I've arrived here at Denver, so I'll need some help." He said simply as he remembered the time a rogue tried to attack him on the parking lot yesterday.  
"So what do you want me to do?" She asked, her voice low.

"Stay." He said simply.  
Moments later he took the bath towel sitting idly on the chair and entered the bathroom, leaving a bright red Aris behind.

He had always been able to handle them - those people after him. They were big with weapons, but not so much on intelligence; they were like brainless monkeys with guns. They lack strategy, and strategy was something he had been learning since he came to USA. However, putting Aris in the picture he felt that things were becoming even more serious. The rogue that attacked him yesterday had a tattoo on his right arm.  
- a gray panther with a yellow streak on its tail.

He remembered seeing someone with the same ink design before, but he couldn't remember. He wanted to get some information from the rogue but obviously he had no intention of talking as he had already planned to shoot Simon, but couldn't because Aris had shot the rogue first.

"Something big is about to happen," he thought to himself. He could feel it. Besides, he knew that meeting Aris wasn't coincidental either. He could tell that she has no idea what was going on, but he was worried; for himself.  
Hell he was even worried for her.  
He rubbed his forehead. "This is extremely stupid," he said quietly, and sighed. After a quick shower he stepped out and saw that Aris had already placed herself in his bed, and created a barrier with his pillows so there wouldn't be room for a second person. He smiled as he noticed Aris still holding the knife in her hand amidst being asleep.

"She never lowers her guard, huh."  
Not bothering to put a shirt on, Simon moved towards Aris and took the knife from her hand, carefully so she wouldn't wake up. He placed it on top of the table beside her. Simon was about to leave when he heard her voice.

"I... mhmm... nuhhrmal... I wannaabeenuhhrmal..."  
He listened as she started mumbling something about wanting to be a normal chipmunk. "It seems this chipmunk sleep talks too." He quietly chuckled, and subconsciously he caught himself removing the strand of her red hair covering her face.

As he watched her, he couldn't help himself but feel amazement.  
She's breathtaking.  
He felt tempted to touch her porcelain fur as it quietly glowed beneath the dark night, but stopped himself and quickly got up.  
Simon couldn't believe himself. Among the many women he led to his bed, Aris was the only woman he hadn't slept with. He would be lying to himself if he said he doesn't want to, but he was scared; he was afraid-

Afraid that she would hate him.  
He turned around to look at her one more time when he noticed the bandage on her leg loosening up. He quickly fixed it.

When he was done, he plopped himself on the couch and turned off the lights.  
"Good night Aris."

It was dark - the vast sky from above, the surroundings grim and shady. Simon was walking, slowly, as if his feet were melting in what felt like bottomless ground. There was no one in sight. Just him. Sadness felt the air as he heavily took each step.  
"Where am I?" He thought to himself. As he looked around, everything was black. Darkness was all he could see.  
Then there was blood.  
Simon looked down to see that the white polo shirt he was wearing had red stain all over it. His eyes widened, and he was shaking. Then he put his hands up to see that they were completely covered in blood; and much worse -

He was holding a bloody knife. The same knife that Aris had.  
He dropped it.

Then all of a sudden, within a blink of an eye the whole scenery changed. He was back in high school - Senior Year. It was a sunny day, birds fluttering freely in the cool breeze of Denver.

"I'm having a dream." Simon realized. He watched as the lethargic students walked into Westn Eastman High, some too excited to meet friends while the others cared less about anyone else. He realized he was invisible to them as he had been tapping them in the shoulders and they merely ignored them. Funny, Simon thought, because even though it was a dream it felt as if he was just reliving another day of his high school year.

Then he saw himself.  
Surrounded by a small group of football players, Eighteen-year-old Simon was in the middle of laughing hard from a joke said seconds ago.

"Was I that awkward-looking before?" He laughed at himself. Eighteen-year-old Simon was energetic, popular, and very well-known not only for his family's wealth but his own accomplishments as well. But he was humble; he never bullied people as he never seemed to see the point of it.

Then Simon noticed that as "Simon" looked at his phone, glimmer had quickly appeared in his eyes. Simon watched his younger self as he quickly said his goodbyes to his friends and ran to the opposite direction. Abrupt pain crushed his heart as he knew exactly where his younger self was running to - To his hope, to his love, to his life.

Jeanette.

"RINNG!"  
The booming sound of his cell phone brought him back to reality. Without opening his eyes Simon reached to his phone and threw it straight up to the wall.

"Bloody heck ." He thought to himself as his body was aching all over. He opened his eyes and saw that he was inches away from falling over the couch.

"Why the heck was I sleeping here?" He asked himself, then he looked around to see that his bedroom was trashed all over; broken ceiling, broken chandelier, ripped curtains. Then he remembered.

Aris.

He quickly walked over his bed to see that it was cleanly made up. She left.  
Simon noticed a note stuck in the pillow and pulled it out.

'Thanks.  
- A'

"That girl." He sighed. He was still worried, but amazed at the same time. The mysterious girl named Aris turned out to be a deadly assassin struggling to live a double life. He had a feeling Zena knew nothing about this side of Aris, but he also had no intention of telling her either. If Aris was going to protect him, then he should do the same and protect her too.

After all, he was starting to like her.

Theodore walked along the pathway on the breezy morning of Denver as he wanted to explore the city he hadn't been to for almost a year. He was completely preoccupied with the illegal trafficking going on in Dubai that he wasn't able to get a single day off for a year, and here he was now for another assignment-

'Special Case 123776: Case Crimson. Order: Hunt Crimson Down and Kill on Spot.'

"Once I'm done with her, I'll be relaxing in Hawaii." Theodore thought to himself, and a grin relaxed on his face. While Theodore was walking he noticed a chipmunk struggling to collect the flyers lying messily on the cold ground. He quickly jogged to where the flyers were and started collecting them. The woman was facing the other side so she hadn't noticed him as he walked forward.  
"Here they are," he said, and the woman quickly turned around.

"T-thanks." She replied, her voice shy and shaking. He handed it to her, and she gave him a small smile.  
"She's pretty." He thought to himself as he watched her.  
"Would you like to take one?" She offered him a flyer. "D j Vu Cafe is having a reopening tomorrow night and we would like as much people to come as possible."

"Sure." He replied. "As long as you'll be there."  
The chipmunk stared at him with her big, brown eyes.  
"I have to be there, I work there." She replied slyly. As she tried to walk, Derek noticed a carefully placed bandage wrapped around her leg.

"What happened?" He pointed to her leg, and this startled the chipmunk that she lost her balance. She almost fell down when Derek immediately extended his hands to pull her up and pressed her body against his.  
"That was close." He said, and noticed the girl feeling uneasy about their lack of personal space.  
"Too close," he heard her whisper, and he immediately let her go.  
"Thanks for that." She said, picking the flyers up. She turned around to go.  
"I'll be there."

Theodore watched as the chipmunk turned around, surprised at his response. She showed him a small smile and left.  
'See you tomorrow, beautiful!' He said loudly, and walked away whistling a jaunty tune.

As Aris entered the cafe, she excused herself and entered the washroom where she made sure was empty. She opened her phone.  
"What's up, Tyler?"  
"Have you made contact with him?"  
"Yes."  
"Good. Theodore. 9 Years Old. Central Intelligence. Be careful around that chipmunk."  
"I know that! Did you call me to tell me to terminate him?"  
"Not yet. We need information from him."  
Aris was silent for a second. It was odd that she wasn't ordered to proceed with the termination this time, when Tyler had been eyeing on this Kingston guy since they found out about him.  
"Well, what do you want me to do?"  
"That's up to you." Tyler replied, and hanged up.

'What the heck do you guys really want me to do?' Aris thought vehemently. Not only was she in charge of protecting Simon, she now needed to watch over her back for a creeping detective thirsting for her head. It's like protecting a target when she was a target herself.  
"If you really want me dead, you could do it yourself," she said out loud,  
"That is... if you can." She quietly laughed as she exited the washroom.

"What are we going to do now?" The chipmunk in blue leather pants squirmed in infuriation. The chipmunk beside him touched her hair, and slid her fingers to smoothen it out.

"You need to relax, Dunkin." She said in a voice so squeaky, flies tried to avoid her.

"How the heck can you relax like that, Jenny? That bastard of a billionaire has Crimson behind him!" He yelled out, smashing the beer bottle he was holding to pieces.

"Why are you so scared of Crimson, huh? Just because she smacked your face on the wall doesn't mean you have to hate her like that." The blondie named Jenny chuckled, and she received a dirty look for her partner.

"I've got info that they're both around town today. We'll split up. You go after the billionaire and I go after that stupid redhead. I want this job done now." The middle-aged chipmunk named Dunkin ordered, and fled the bar.  
Jenny ordered another glass of whisky, and chugged it down in a split of a second.

"Munkhole. You're not the only one who wants that redhead dead." 


	7. Let the Games Begin

"That will be sixty-dollars and twenty-five cents."  
"Thank you."

I walked out of the local grocery store, grabbing the ingredients for dinner at hand. Last week, I never would have imagined that I'll be cooking dinner for somebody. For the past twenty-five years I made dinner for myself. I lived alone, all this time. However, things have changed now that I'm to protect somebody. Christopher Thomas - the wealthy billionaire with an empire to watch over for decided he wanted me to cook for him tonight. I could still imagine how our conversation went last night.

"No."  
"Come on. I've only eaten Chinese food for the past three days."  
"Get your chef to do your cooking for you."

"I have no chef. Clarice took them all on a cruise. Someone tells me she knew you were coming, and decided to take advantage of that."  
I looked at the chipmunk with the suit lying lazily on the couch.

"Did your mother think I'll be your maid?"  
He laughed a little. "No, not maid." He looked at me.  
"Future wife, maybe."  
I turned around, showing him the gun I have sitting under my belt.

"Don't forget what I am, Mister Seville. I kill for a living," I said coldly. I started walking out of the door, grabbing his credit card from the top of his desk. "I'll get dinner."

It was already seven in the evening, and the air was filled with gusty wind. I held the paper bag closer to my chest. "It's going to rain." I thought to myself. I was walking along Carr Street, and there weren't a lot people in sight. As I walked I noticed a small child run up to me, tears in eyes.

"Mommy!" He said, tugging my trench coat. I froze.

"Umm... I'm not your mommy."  
I said, trying hard not to shake. I was bad with kids, I really was. Memories flooded over my mind - images of children staring at me in horror as they witness the death of their parents right in front of their eyes.

The people I've killed were considered bad people for their drug dealing and their other criminal records, but as a parent - how were they? Were they so kind that they've allowed their children to stay innocent while they do their dirty work? And now that I've killed their parents right in front of them, how much children have I scarred?

His light blonde hair was messy, and his tiny clothes were ruffled all over. How long was he looking for his mother?

"Mommy," The little chipmunk said again, this time his hands were up, waving. He wanted a lift, I thought. I was about to extend my hand towards his tiny set of fingers when I suddenly sensed something heading our way - a knife. It was coming from the alleyway - smog covered the perpetrator, but I didn't have time. I needed to get out of a way.

My instincts told me to move away, but my eyes didn't leave the child rubbing his hand on his watery eyes. He was near me, and I have no time to move both of us. It was either I move aside and let him take the knife, or I don't move. So I didn't.

Instead I bent down and pushed the child towards me, covering his tiny body with my own. I moved to my left so the knife would hit my back. I waited for it. The knife did not come.

"That was close."  
My eyes widened as I heard the all too familiar voice - that husky, velvety voice. I turned around to see that Christopher was standing right behind me, holding the knife in hand.

It wasn't just a knife, my mind thought in horror, it was a katana. An actual, silver- plaited katana used only when the enemy is considered to be truly great. I have rarely used this weapon myself, because despite my occupation, I prefer that my enemy have a fair fight with me. Whoever it was decided that I was not worth being given a fair fight.

If Simon hadn't arrived in time, the deadly weapon wouldn't have just stabbed me, it would also stab the child. Simon looked at the alleyway. It was dark, and the smog was made to be their cover.

"They're gone." He said.  
I stood up. I touched the child's hair. "Are you okay?" I asked him.  
He nodded, but his hand was still holding coat, shivering. Before I could carry him Simon lifted him up and placed him in his shoulders.

"Let's look for this kid's mom," he said.

"Yes." It was all I could say. We roamed around Carr Street, asking all the women if they have lost their child. Eventually a very distressed-looking woman ran up to us, calling the child by name.

"Michael!" She yelled in pure concern.  
"Mommy!" The chipmunk replied back, his hands extending to her. After thanking us for what seemed like a million time, she explained that although she had such a firm hold of him, he suddenly disappeared. She thought she'd never see him again, and was extremely thankful we were there.

As they left, Simon was quiet.

"What's wrong?" I asked him.  
"That child. Whoever wanted to hurt you must have stolen that child from his mother, so they can use him as distraction."  
He was right. I fell for it too. If Simon hadn't been there...  
"Hey." I smiled at him. " Thanks."  
He was quiet, then for a second I thought he turned red but he turned around, coughing.

"Let's just go get something to eat first. We'll talk about this later," he said as he led me to his car.

"How did you find me anyway?"

"You were taking long. I was worried. Besides, I don't want you getting hurt. After, all you're my bodyguard." He winked.

"I see," was all I could say, and was thankful, he turned back because my face suddenly turned red, and I felt weird. "I must be getting a cold," I thought to myself and followed him inside.

We went inside an Italian restaurant, and the amazing smell of the food got my stomach rumble. I crossed my arms in embarrassment. Simon laughed.

"You are definitely hungry," he said, laughing. A waitress came over to us and almost fell down when she looked at him.

"Um, table for one?" She said, her tone a little pitchy.  
"For two, actually," he replied, gesturing at both of us.

"Oh." She said, and I could almost feel her glare right behind me. If stares could kill, I'd probably be dead. When we walked, Simon went closer and whispered to the waitress, and she nodded her head. She led us to a small table on the corner overlooking the ocean. There wasn't anybody around so the privacy was perfect.

"For a date," I heard my mind tell me, and immediately I slapped my head. As we sat down, she gave us our menus and he started reading them. I, on the other hand, looked at the beach.

How peaceful, the tranquility of the ocean was so inviting I almost wanted to jump.

Jump. Jump. Jump.

Suddenly, an image popped in my head. It was a cliff -a cliff overlooking the rough ocean.

Unlike the ocean I was looking at, the ocean in this image was uninviting and perturbed. There was a high tide and the waters could almost reach the top of the cliff. When I looked closely, there was someone - a girl. I could hear her soft sobbing and immediately my heart was raising.

The girl was standing right in front of the cliff, her back facing me. She was wearing a dress - it was a beautiful shade of white, but the dirt has covered some of it. Before the image grew blurry I noticed something else. Her long hair... It was a lovely shade of red.

"Aris. Aris."  
I looked up to see that Simon was looking right at me. He tilted his head in confusion.

"Are you alright?" He asked. His expression showed concern.  
"I'm alright. Just hungry." I told him.  
Before he could say anything else the waitress came back asking for our order.  
I had no idea what to order, so Simon decided to order for the both of us. Minutes later, our food arrived.

"Let's eat." 


	8. All those People

"Thank you Wilson. Have them send the papers here. Yes, I'll be staying here for a while so I leave that to you. Yes, alright."

Simon hanged up the phone.  
Wilson, his trusted secretary, had just given him news that a new contract was in place for Thomas Hotels. The business has been doing successful-

"Too successful," Simon thought to himself. He scrunched his forehead. "It's because of the business that people wanted my head in a platter."

"Who was that? Your secretary or one of your mistresses?" A feminine voice asked from behind.

Simon smiled. He looked back to see a very amused redhead. "I'm not surprised you know about that."

Aris laughed. "I did my homework." Simon went back to their table after excusing himself to answer his phone. "I don't give my number to any woman I sleep with." He told her as he took a bite of the ravioli. It was already nine-thirty in the evening, and as Aris looked around she noticed the restaurant was filled with couples who decided to have a nice dinner themselves. This made her uncomfortable.

"Aris." Simon called out. "How's the leg?" She noticed him look down. Under the trench coat she was earlier she had on a simple black dress. The dark color made her radiant skin stand out while its v-neck design elongated her already long neck. She had her hair down - her long red hair that almost reached her waist. She noticed the way Simon watched her and mentally laughed as he stiffened when he saw the gun she had under her thigh.

"It's getting better." She said to him.  
"Your gun... is it loaded?" He asked her.  
"Yes."  
"How many people have you shot?"

Aris looked at him. He looked at his expression - he looked scared and afraid. He was afraid of her.

She hated it.  
"Enough people - think of this as assurance that you'll be safe." She faked a smile.  
"I don't care about that." He said to her, and took another bite of his food. "All I'm saying is... I wish you were more careful with yourself."  
This stunned Aris, but she shook her head. "If I wasn't careful enough then I'd be dead already."  
"You're right."

Aris' phone started ringing. She picked it up.  
"Code?" She asked formally.  
"Cuckoo Bird."

"Gregory." Aris addressed her caller. " Why are you calling?"  
The voice on the other line sucked his breath. The background was noisy, and Aris realized he was still in Bangkok for his latest mission. "Crimson," he said,

"Run."  
Immediately Aris stood up, and so did Simon. "Someone's coming for you." She looked at the window. "Get him out of there," he ordered and then he hanged up. She put the phone down and grabbed Simon.

"Let's go."  
"What's wrong?"  
"Someone's coming for us." She said. They've gotten out of the restaurant. The streets were dark so it gave them a chance. They ran to the opposite side of the road. "It's better to leave the car for now," she said to him, and he nodded. As they ran Aris took her pistol and reloaded it. She handed her extra one to him. "Do you know how to use a gun?" She asked quietly.

"Not quite."  
"Good enough." She held his hand. "If someone looks suspicious shoot them - in the head." She turned around and finally felt the presence of people standing behind the trees. "They're here. Get behind me." She ordered him. They were in the middle of the park at pitch night, but the few street lights showed their culprits.

Standing in front was a middle-aged man. He was wearing a pair of gold leader pants which appeared to have lighting of it own. He was wearing an indigo colored shirt as well, but the weapon behind him showed he wasn't there to party. It was a katana - the same katana they encountered earlier.

"It was them," she thought to herself. And then as she looked to his right, a woman stood beside him. She was young, maybe the same age as Aris. She was taller though, and was holding a Deringer - a deadly weapon as well.

"Who are they?" Simon asked. Before Aris could reply, the man has started moving. He lunged at full speed, and right at Simon. Fortunately, Simon was quick enough to back away. Before Aris could get to Christopher, the woman has moved in front of her.

"You're not going anywhere," she hissed. Aris glared at her. "I'll be fine!" Christopher yelled from the other side. "I'm not too sure, Doctor Simon." The middle-aged man replied, and they ran off deeper in the park.

"Aren't you just so sad to see your boyfriend go away, Crimson?" The chipmunk said in disgusting incredulity, and Aris couldn't help but feel anger running in her veins.

However, as strange it is sounds - Aris smiled.

"Well," Aris replied as she started walking forward, "It all works out for the best. After all..." As fast as lightning she ran up to the women with her gun at hand-

"I hate teamwork."

Gunshots.  
Simon turned his head to where the deadly sound came from and realized it came from where Aris was.

"Aris..." He thought.  
"Hey boy, I'm over here." A hoarse voice yelled from above, and Simon was fast enough to move back, a pistol in hand.  
"You're still here." Simon addressed the man; sarcasm evident from his voice.

They were facing each other now. The man in front of him was huffing profusely his katana at hand. Simon's eyes darkened.

"That weapon..." He said. The man laughed yet his laughter sounded like a throaty hoarse.

"Ah, you mean this!" He held his katana. "You're right! I used this on Crimson earlier. If you hadn't interrupted then she'd be done for by now."

"You bastard." Simon tightened his hold on the pistol. He wanted this man dead. Now.

He held his pistol up. The man's throaty laugh was silenced. "What are you going to do, shoot me?" The man asked. "You can't even keep up with me!" He taunted Simon, who stood silently on the ground.

"You're right." Simon replied. "I guess that's why I have to do this." A second later he shot the electric line that was hanging loosely above the man and the whole park went pitch black.

"What-What was that!?" The man panicked as he could not see a thing. Birds flapped and mosquitoes buzzed yet nothing else was detectable. It was too late when the man noticed Simon behind him.

"This one's for her."

Aris stared at the lifeless body of the feisty woman on the ground. Aris had gotten some scratches too, but it was nothing compared to what the woman has gotten.

"You talked too much," Aris whispered. Then the park went black.  
She looked up and realizes the lights have been out. Coincidence? She thought to herself. It took five seconds before the generator brought light back into the park.

Simon.

Her eyes lit up. She had almost forgotten about him. She ran inside the park, searching for him. That was when she noticed Simon lying on the ground. Her insides screamed. She ran towards him.

"Simon!" She shook him. His clothes were torn apart and he had blood, but then joy came to her as she saw his chest rise up, and his eyes flew open.

He was alive.

"Thank Gosh."  
Aris couldn't help but touch his face, and he smiled.

"Hey, beautiful."

"Stand up, idiot." She helped him get up, and he was limping. "What happened to you?"

"I fought a bastard who wouldn't know when to quit it." He answered as he laughed.

"They were after the both of us, huh." He told her and she nodded. "The bounty for your head had increased, and as your sidekick my head is on the line too."

"Wasn't your head always on the line though?" He asked her curiously.  
Aris laughed.

"You're right."  
When Christopher managed to get up, they started walking out of the park. Aris must have felt too relieved to see him alive that she didn't notice what was waiting for them.

Aris froze. "What's wrong?" Simon looked at her. All of a sudden ruffled noises filled them and Simon saw five, ten, maybe fifteen shadows appear out of nowhere. They all showed themselves and formed a circle, leaving the two in the middle. All of them were wearing black - their faces covered, and their hands with a weapon of choice.

"We're done for," Aris said quietly. They looked around, and unlike their former opponents none of them were talkers - just attackers.

As Aris took her pistol out she realized that with Simon injured like this she can't protect him and attack them at the same time. This was all new to her. If she was alone she would have finished them easily, but now that she has somebody to protect, she couldn't move.

They lunged at them.  
Miracles must have heard her silent wishes because suddenly someone who came from nowhere went to their rescue.

Her eyes widened at the speed of their protector. In a flash he stabbed some of the men in black with his left hand and shot the rest of them with his right. Their protector was wearing a gray hoodie, hiding his identity. She wanted to help him, but at the same time she did not want to leave Simon's side.

"Who is he?" Simon asked in amazement.  
"I don't know."

They watched as the man in gray slashed the man in front of him, turned to his right to shoot the other. He was a robot - he had to be. Even Aris herself could not be as fast.

At a blink of an eye he was finished. All of them had been terminated - all except the two of them. As the man in gray moved forward, Aris felt Simon push her behind him, so he would be standing in front of her.

"Thank you," Simon said to the man in gray. He did not respond. He walked one step forward.

"Leave now for the cops are coming." The man spoke with a voice deep yet intriguingly soothing.

"What is your name?" Aris asked him, this time she moved beside Christopher.

"You don't need to know that, Crimson."  
She was surprised to hear him call her that.

"However," he continued,  
"The next time we meet, my enemy is you."

He walked away, leaving a smile on Aris' face.  
"I look forward to it." 


	9. Derek Kingston

The soft breeze of Denver's cold evening carefully caresses Theodore's face.  
He had his hands in his pockets, and was lazily walking through the empty street of Garden Avenue. He felt hungry and decided to walk inside McDonald's for a bite to eat.

As he places his order the old cashier smiled at him.

"What did you tonight that you ordered enough for twenty people?" She teased.

Theodore laughed.

"Not much just did some jogging at the park."

"At night? Isn't it dangerous?" She asked with concern.

"Not at all. In fact, I had some people who happened to be there as well. "

"That's great that there are others who accompanied you." She handed him his food and he said his goodbye.

Theodore walked all the way to his condo. The condominium appeared normal and elegant from the outside, but inside it was sheltering more than ten CIA agents.

As he opened his door, he couldn't help but notice the emptiness inside. There was a flat screen television, two sets of leather couches, a dinner table and all his files scattered all around. He places his food on the table and sat on the couch. Despite the freezing weather the heater did its job properly by providing enough heat so Derek took of his gray jacket.

"What the heck was I thinking? I can't believe this."  
The world was so big in his eyes so not once has he imagined anything like this to be happening in a million years. It wasn't possible.

How could Jeanette come back?

This evening he had gotten information about an unusual activity happening at the park so he decided to check it out. When he got there, he never thought he could see Simon in the battle alongside the chipmunk who looked exactly like Priscilla. The same red hair, the same gentle face and the same strong aura he had always seen in her was there.

However, as he looked closer things were becoming clearer. As if he was reliving a high school memory he saw Jeanette and Simon together, side by side and in a battle.

Why the heck was Simon in a battle with assassins? Christopher has no involvement in anything like that, he thought.

"...Crimson."

That word quickly got Theodore's attention. Earlier, as he watched the intense battle between Jeanette's look-alike and the chipmunk she was fighting with when suddenly everything made sense to him.

The mystical redhead who was fighting for Simon was actually Crimson - the same Crimson he was sent to terminate.

Seven years ago, Theodore, although utterly destroyed, was present at Jeanette's funeral so he knew she passed away. How could one person look so much like the girl he once admired, and be the same person he was supposed to kill?

When the lights on the park turned off, he had his chance to get near Crimson undetectable, but he froze. He couldn't do it.

He just couldn't.

And Simon - how did this happen? When Theodore came to Denver he read some files revealing that an unknown agent was sent to become his protector. He didn't mind much of it as long as Simon was alright, but now things have changed. No matter how much this chipmunk look like, she wasn't Jeanette.

Oh, Jeanette.  
He knew she wasn't her - she couldn't be.  
However, it was difficult to think badly of this woman. As she finished with her fight, she yelled Simon's name with concern - the same concern Jeanette would have if she was alive. Mysteriously, this killed Theodore a little inside and still he quietly followed her as she ran to Simon who was barely breathing.

Theodore wanted to leave to get his head together when he noticed the presence of the men hiding in the bushes. He thought it was odd that the notorious Crimson has not noticed them yet so in the end he decided to take action.

"This is only for Simon," he said to himself. He couldn't take on Crimson, not now.

Theodore sighed. He removed his shoes and placed his feet on the coffee table.

"Things are going to get messy now that Simon knows about Crimson," he said to himself.

There was a knock on the door, and Simon went up to get it.

"Parker." He addressed his visitor as he let him in, "What's up?"  
He and Parker went to the study and Parker placed a file on top of the mahogany desk. Theodore watched him in confusion.

"I did what you asked me today," Parker said as he fixed his glasses.  
"You need to read that."

Theodore opened the file that said, "Case 3207" - the case file regarding Jeanette's car accident.

As he flipped through, he saw the live pictures of Jeanette's Honda Civic in complete wreckage, and then a small body covered in a body bag.

"Parker, this file has two hundred pages. Mind telling me instead?"  
Parker sucked in some air, and took the files from Theodore's hand.

"You see this?" He pointed at the picture of the wrecked car. "The car was in complete shambles; ruin; total mass destruction."

Then Parker pointed at the body bag. "The CSI said this was the body of the girl right?" Derek nodded.

"Our agency never cared about cases like these so I had to take a step down and talk to the people who were in this investigation." Parker started flipping the pages and found the page with the police report. "In here they said that the car was completely destructed from the inside and the outside, yet they found the remains of the girl inside?" Derek was starting to get impatient, but nodded anyway.

Parker started flipping the pages again, but this time Derek stopped him.

"I'm begging you man, tell me the point."

Parker closed the file and looked at Theodore.  
"This case is truly amazing Theodore," he said, "but what I'm saying is that the car was put into extreme pressure when it fell of the roadside cliff. When it rolled down, everything outside and inside was wrecked in to extremes. If a person was inside, there was no possible way her body was still intact."

"In her funeral, her casket was closed because of that reason." Theodore retorted.

"You don't understand, Kingston. What I'm saying is that if Satan was inside that car, you wouldn't know where his body was either because it would have been blown to pieces. The impact was too much for the car and that was made out of metal. Theodore, if Jeanette was inside that car, then the police shouldn't have found a body - no matter how wrecked the body was, because it should have been blown to pieces. So how is it possible that they found her so-called body?"

Theodore froze.

"Are you telling me that if Jeanette was inside her car, her body would not have been found?"

"Yes. If she was inside, then all that would have been left of her would be her ashes. The car had also exploded which meant more impossibility for a body to be recovered."

"So what are you trying to say?"

"Theodore, the body found that night wasn't Jeanette Miller." 


	10. And the Plot Thickens

Aris watched Simon as his injured body rested on the bed.

She sat herself on the frame of his bedroom window, a hot cup coffee in hand. They've barely managed to get on with their fight this evening, but she was amazed that Simon handled himself well enough to only get a sprain on his right foot and some scratches. "I'm glad he can manage himself somehow," she thought.

It took a while for Aris to convince Simon to take a rest, but in the end he did just that. Besides, Aris doesn't want him to think she was a failure, she wouldn't stomach it.

"If I were stronger, he wouldn't need to fight." She said to herself. She knew she was hired for this reason, despite her hatred of the mission at first. Although she has no intention of ever admitting it, she was starting to get comfortable around the billionaire. She was never used to keeping personal relationships with other people except Zena, her first friend and Simon's cousin - so everything was new to her. Somehow, the billionaire was starting to get to her too.

She shook her head. Aside from the things she doesn't know, what she does know was that she needed to become stronger. The fight this evening made her realize that she has to improve. Before, she managed to do alright being able to protect herself, but now she must learn how to protect herself and Simon as well. After all, Simon's enemies aren't the only ones seeking for their head; she had her own enemies to confront as well.

Aris looked outside and remembered the man who helped them out today. "He must have pitied us and decided to help instead."

She was confused to why an enemy of hers decided to be in her side today, but in the end disregarded the thought and figured she should start preparing instead. She retreated to the guest room and closed her eyes.

It was the same dream again - the same, exact dream she had been dreaming of every time she closes her eyes.

The familiar Cliffs appeared in her mind. It was at midnight, and the high tide could be seen from below as the rushing waves of waters threw themselves over and over again at the rocks under. And then Aris was waiting for something or someone to appear, just as it had been doing every day.

A chipmunk.  
A chipmunk in a white knee-length dress was walking towards the cliff, her brown hair being blown by the gusty wind. Aris could not see the face of the chipmunk, but she could hear her sobs as she walked forward. Every single time she sees this dream her heart breaks in two.

"Who are you?" She said in a whisper, as if talking to herself. "Who are you, and what do you want from me?" She said again; feelings of all sort rushes to her body as if in a single whiff she was furious, angry, sad-  
Lonely.  
Tears escaped her eyes.

"Aris?"  
She opened her eyes to see a pair of the-all-too-comforting green eyes look at her with intense worry.

"Are you alright?"

Simon placed his palm on her cheekbone, and then wiped the tears off her lovely face. Aris instantly removed his hand and stood up. "I'm fine." She looked around to see that it was already morning - seven o'clock to be exact.

"Where are you heading?" She asked as she noticed him wearing a suit. "I'm heading to work, tons of papers to be done while I was away," he replied as he tried to fix his necktie. "They couldn't wait so they decided to send it here, where I told them I'd be spending my vacation." Aris heard him whimper and decided to walk forward. She slapped his uneasy hands away from his collar and started fixing his tie.

"You suck at this." She said. Simon laughed at her remark, but then he looked at her; up close her features became even more striking; he was amazed that his self-control hadn't lost him.  
Yet.  
"Is this how it's going to be once we're married?" He said, smirking. Aris merely buttoned up his top collar, choking him instantly.

"Are your injuries better?" She asked him.  
"Yeah. I can move now." He replied. What a hell of a night! All those men after them, it was amazing they were still alive.

"Let's forget about yesterday for now." They both agreed.

She asked him to wait. A couple of minutes later, she was fully armed and ready to go. The mission starts here.  
The Denver Headquarters for the Seville industries was busting with energy; people were coming in and out.

"Amazing," Aris said as she looked up at the skyscraper building. "My father's big on structures and the likes," he said to her and they started to enter the building. When they did, Simon watched as eyes feasted on the redhead beside her. Shit.

"Welcome back, Doctor Simon!" A man with bald head and a gray tuxedo walked forward to their party. "Mr. Petersmith, it has been a long time, hasn't it?" They shook hands. Aris could see that Simon was feeling uncomfortable as he spoke to him, but she merely hid behind his broad back.

"Well, I apologize for not being here yesterday," the middle-aged man called Petersmith said in what sounded like a pretentious apology," After all, I was busy finishing a contract in San Francisco. I suppose you can forgive me for not welcoming you sooner?" He raised his eyebrow. "Of course. Well, we must be heading upstairs." Simon turned around hoping to finish their conversation when Petersmith spoke again.

"Well, what a beautiful chipmunk you have here," he gestured at Aris, who was awkwardly hiding behind Simon's back. She was wearing a simple black knee-length office skirt and a beige blouse thinking she could fit in. In Simon's mind, he would rather have her naked and in his bed.

"H-Hello..." Aris said shyly. She thought it would be better to put this kind of persona around Simon's acquaintances in order for her to move around more.  
"Well, who might you be?" Petersmith asked in curiosity.  
Crap.  
Aris forgot to talk to Christopher about this. She sighed.

"I am actually Doctor Thomas' fri-"

"Fianc . Petersmith, this is my fianc - Aris Smtih." 


	11. And the Plot Thickens (Part Two)

"I didn't know you proposed to me."

Aris and Simon have just entered an empty elevator after their conversation with his father's greatest employee.

"He did give us his best wishes as well," he laughed. "It was a pretty genius idea, really." Aris nodded her head in approval. If she had said that they were only friends, then it would be unnatural to see them together all the time. However, by saying that she is his fiancee, no one will suspect. "Yeah, it came out of the blue." He replied.

Actually, it did come out of the blue, his idea that is. When she was being stared at with those hungry eyes, he hated it. I guess that's why when an opportunity came knocking he grabbed it by the tail and hoped for the best. He never felt restless over a girl. He did though, once.

But she was already gone.

The elevator opened, snapping his head back to reality. Aris was now his bodyguard, and will be with him wherever he goes. After coming to Denver, his life was attempted to so many times already but secretly he was pretty happy about it. He hadn't had this much adventure in his lifetime, and he gets to meet Aris too. He could die happy now.

Those words haunted Theodore's mind all night. The body found seven years ago in Jeanette's car wasn't her. It was someone else's. He didn't care about the other girl, just that it wasn't Jeanette in the car.

"WHAT THE HECK!" He screamed. He wanted to know, needed to know, if Jeanette was still alive or not.

"You say this Crimson looked very similar to Miss Seville, am I correct?" He remembered Parker ask him last night.

"Yes."

"Then it is possible," Parker shifted his glasses, "that Crimson and Miss Seville is the same person."

Theodore was silent. Inside, he knew such a possibility can exist now that it was clear Priscilla may still be alive. But for her to be Crimson herself... Impossible.

"You must be careful though, Kingston." Parker started packing up. "I smell a conspiracy going on. I'll look into it more and then I'll tell you if I find anything." Parker said his goodbye and left, leaving Theodore stunned to silence.

Theodore looked up to see the sun shining over him. He checked his watch and found out it was already 8:30 in the morning. He quickly got up, grabbed his keys, and drove straight to Central. Something's going on - something big.  
"Conspiracy, huh."

The room was quiet. As Simon signed papers on his desk, he couldn't help but take a look at Aris who was busy doing something at her computer.

"I'm not naked, so stop staring at me," she said to him, but her eyes didn't leave her computer screen.

"It would be better if you were," he replied. She slowly placed her hand on the hem of her skirt, lifting it up so he could he see the revolver sitting idly on her thigh. "Then again, you're beautiful either way," he said uneasily. Aris grinned.

"You have a hundred and thirty million dollars invested in this headquarter alone. Two- hundred million dollars in San Francisco, and who knows how much more in UK. No wonder you have everyone vying for your head."

Aris was reading up the Seville Family files.  
"First of all, stop hacking my Intel. Secondly, it's four-hundred twenty million Euros." He stood up from his table and sat beside Aris who seemed absorbed with her information.

She closed her computer and stared at him.

"What I don't understand is this - why are they after you now? You've been assigned the heir for a couple of years, so why not then?"

This silenced Simon. Aris was right.  
"I don't really know either."

"My sources still haven't found out anything about your family except that your family has some ties with my boss. Do you know anything about that?"  
"None." He replied. "My grandfather founded this company a while back. That's all I know. I haven't seen him for a long time."  
"Since When?"  
"Around..." Seven years ago, when he decided to come over. Jeanette, she was there too.

"Simon?"  
"Seven years ago. He came over here when I was living here."  
"Oh yeah, about that. I read that you lived here in Denver before. Why did you leave?"  
Why did I leave? Why, I wonder. I don't even know why myself. Or maybe I do know, but I want to deny the very existence of that reason.  
"Hey, Simon you're not answering my ques-"

"Stop asking so much!"

He stood up. Aris only looked at him. "I'm getting coffee." He left her in his office.  
"What the heck was that?" He thought to himself. He knew what he did was wrong and practically immature, but she doesn't want her knowing about anything yet.  
After all, how would she feel when she find out about his past? He sighed. Simon walked back in his office to apologize but Aris wasn't there anymore. His phone vibrated; a message:

Be right back.  
P.S I'm sorry for earlier. - A

"It's nice to see your face again, Kingston."  
"Same here, 007." The man in front of Theodore laughed. "You know he's my father. I like being called Parker, very normal."  
Theodore reached the Central Headquarters. He was restless after their conversation from last night.

"How's your father been anyway? I forgot to ask last night." He said to Parker.

"You know, laid back as usual. But I assume you weren't here for that?" Parker led him to the boardroom where three men in black suits sat quietly. "I told them about what happened. They're here to discuss it."

Parker was talking about the three men in charge of the special division - the division where Theodore and Parker are a part of. Founded by Parker's father, this division was in charge of special cases which even the FBI and the Homeland security cannot handle.

The two entered and sat on the opposite ends of the round table. Theodore could feel the tension in the air that he wished he had a knife to cut it.

The man on his right cleared his throat, grabbing Derek's attention.

"Welcome, Kingston. Let's get down to business, shall we?"

"Yes, I would like that." He replied. "Let me get to the point. What is your agenda regarding the Seville family?"

"What do you mean?" The chipmunk on his left asked in wonder.

"I am talking about the possible connections between the family and the underworld. Is there a possibility that they have ties with any assassination organizations?"  
The room was quiet.

"They do not." The third men answered. "Or more accurately, we don't know ourselves. However, why are we discussing such matter? Is not your mission to exterminate Crimson?"  
"Yes, but-"  
"Have you made progress?"  
"Not yet. Howe-"  
"Then please focus on that instead. We are busy people, not idle enough to have such pathetic talks. Excuse us." And then they left, leaving only Parker and Theodore inside.  
Theodore slammed the table. "Those bastards," he breathed. "Well, they certainly are trying to hide something, I can tell that much."

"Well, they've always hated talking. Even to me."  
Parker stood up. "Get yourself back there and try to figure out Crimson's real identity. I'll support you from here," he said.

"I believe," Parker looked up, "something rotten is going on in Denver." 


End file.
